Like most animals, roundworms primarily engage in aerobic respiration, meaning that they use oxygen to convert food into energy.
How do roundworms get their nutrition?
Diet/Feeding Nematodes feed on organic matter, both dead and alive such as small animals including other worms, or on diatoms, algae, fungi and bacteria. Some eat plants by piercing the stem or root and sucking out the contents.
How do roundworms respond to stimuli?
The habitat of zooparasitic nematodes, coupled with their sensory reduction, indicates that chemical stimuli may modulate most aspects of their behavioral physiology. Nematodes respond to the feeding status of the host so that the helminth's pharyngeal pumping, site selection, and sexual activity may be altered.
What do parasitic roundworms eat?
Plant parasitic roundworms live on or inside plants, where they puncture cell walls and feed on the tubers, roots and bulbs. Insect parasitic roundworms inject deadly bacteria into insects. When the insect dies, the roundworm feeds on the bacteria and decaying tissue.
How do nematodes feed?
Fungal-feeders feed by puncturing the cell wall of fungi and sucking out the internal contents. Predatory nematodes eat all types of nematodes and protozoa. They eat smaller organisms whole, or attach themselves to the cuticle of larger nematodes, scraping away until the prey's internal body parts can be extracted.
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